


Happy Birthday Mr. Stark

by WhumpTown



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Bisexual Tony Stark, Iron Dad, Kid Tony Stark, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-29 16:14:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19023436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhumpTown/pseuds/WhumpTown
Summary: There's a lot of m/m stuff for two of these, nothing too specific and like the f word at least twice





	Happy Birthday Mr. Stark

**Author's Note:**

> There's a lot of m/m stuff for two of these, nothing too specific and like the f word at least twice

He sits on the front porch and watches his blood pool at his feet. He’s six-years-old and too smart for his own good. A damn fine student and far old enough to know to leave his father alone when he’s drinking. He could smell the whiskey and now he can feel the sting of his father’s ring where Howard split his lip open. He wanted his mother but Maria was stuck playing the negotiator. She tried to talk him down, to calm him down but he’s three drinks in and he’s past negotiating.

Jarvis finds him. 

“Chin up,” Jarvis doesn’t bother telling Tony that it’ll get better. “Young Anthony, why must you never listen to me?” Jarvis clicks his tongue and inspects the cut. Slowly, Jarvis lifts his hand to touch Tony’s face. He shushes Tony’s sobs, using his thumb to gently hold the lip still as Jarvis wipes the blood away. The hot rag stops the bleeding quickly. 

“I-I just wanted M-Mommy.” He can hardly talk through the sobs and Jarvis sighs. He finds himself scooping up his boss’ son and gently shushing the boy until the sobs die down enough that Jarvis can talk reasonably to him. 

“My dearest Anthony,” Jarvis holds the boy to his chest. He brushes his hand through the boys thick brown hair and looking away from those big sad eyes. “My boy, you have to promise me you won’t ever do that again.” 

Tony shakes his head,” Mommy needed m-”

“No.” Jarvis takes Tony’s head in both of his hands, cupping the boy’s cheeks. “Your mother is a grown woman, Anthony. She doesn’t need you to be a hero, she needs you to stay safe.”

Tony’s big brown eyes fill with tears, he shakes his head,” no.” He sounds heartbroken,” I can’t. Mommy… Daddy said Stark men-”

Jarvis nearly shouts at the boy. His mouth opens to do it, he even sucks in a measured breath, but he stops. Tony needs Jarvis to be the same level headed butler he’s always been, shouting will not make Tony understand. What it will do is cause Tony to stop trusting him too. So Jarvis just puts his hand up, stopping the boy from speaking on. “Sir, you are a boy. A child. You are not iron. You are not a soldier. No matter what your father says you are, no matter what the people or the magazines say you are Anthony Edward Stark.”

Tony nods his head.

“No one gets to decide our futures except us.” Jarvis lowers his voice,” you are not Captain America. You are not your father. Anthony, decide who you want to be and settle for nothing else.” Jarvis clears his throat and looks away for a moment. He looks back at the child on his lap and smiles,” you’re also going to have to decide on a cake.”

The confusion on Tony’s face is heartbreakingly adorable. He tilts his head and asks,” why do I get to pick a cake?”

Jarvis almost doesn’t manage to hold back his tears. He’s heartbroken for this little boy. “Tony,” the boy’s nickname slips out as Jarvis attempts to keep his cool resolve. “You don’t know what today is?”

Tony yawns, a garbled ‘no’ escaping in the mix. He doesn't bother fighting his exhaustion, just leans his head against Jarvis' chest.

Jarvis’ suspicions were right. He knew Howard called Tony to work with him, he uses the time to broadcast to the media that he loves his son. He also makes Tony do his grunt work, calls it 'learning'. But Howard has sent Jarvis home early the last three days and kept him away from the workshop. 

"Tony, it's your birthday."

 

 

There's a man in his Advanced Thermodynamics course. He's got blue eyes and he's 26 but he always winks at Tony when they leave class. Rhodey tells him that he shouldn't mess with men that much older than him but today is his eighteenth birthday. 

"Have you ever done this?" The man, Tony keeps forgetting his name, gets three drinks into him and takes advantage of Tony's six. He's too drunk to stop him but he's not trying to. Turns out screwing does wonders for his overworked brain. It doesn't matter if it's with a man or a woman.

"F-Fuck." Tony wraps his legs around the man's weight pulling him closer. It doesn't matter now if he knows what he's doing or not because he's got the lube and a condom. 

"You-" the man's sentence is cut off by Tony's kiss, he grabs the man's hair and pulls him close. "Have you been tested?"

Tony's mind spaces out. The man's hands are now in his pants. Cold fingers find his boxers and he gasps into a harsh kiss rather than answer. There's a firm hand wrapped around his half hard dick when the man repeats his question.

Tony nods, his answer gasped out. "Y-yeah," the lube is cold and he gasps as the man's fingers breach him. "I-I'm-I'm good." He can remember Rhodey dragging by the ear to the clinic. The worst part was that he didn't care if he came back positive or not. He didn't care if he got a death sentence for a disease. 

It freaks him out.

The man starts to struggle with the condom, cussing when it doesn't open. He puts it between his teeth and when it still doesn't open he offers it to Tony. He throws it to the side. "Just fuck me."

The entire event is over pretty quickly and twenty minutes later Tony is sobbing in his dorm room. He makes it to the dorm, avoiding eye contact and hoping that the scent of sex isn’t hovering above him in as thick of a cloud as he thinks it ia. The tears don’t start to pour down his face until he’s seated on his bed. Even then he manages to keep himself calm until he sees the picture of himself and Rhodey smiling on his nightstand.

That’s how Rhodey finds him. 

“Hey,” it takes a moment before Rhodey realizes what’s wrong but it’s all the time he needs. He takes Tony in his arms, shaking his head when he smells Steton’s body spray. “Dammit, Tones. Why would you sleep with a guy who wears Stetson's?” 

Tony laughs just enough between the sobs that Rhodey knows he’s not too far gone. “H-He had a really cute butt.” Tony pulls his head off of Rhodey’s shoulder,” Rhodey? Am I… What’s wrong with me?”

Rhodey doesn’t know a whole lot about Tony’s personal life. There are secrets, a ton of them, some better kept than others. He knows that Howard Stark isn’t all that the media hypes him up to be. That the scar on Tony’s lip, that runs jagged and horizontal, is from the man’s high school ring. That their butler and several maides raised Tony, they taught him to survive and how to speak two other languages. But what he does know, with absolute certainty? “There’s nothing wrong with you.”

Tony rubs his eyes, wiping the tears away. 

“Hey,” Rhodey puts a hand on his shoulder. “I mean it, okay? You’re the smartest person I know. The smartest person at this place.” That elects him a soft smile, a half cocky one. “There’s nothing wrong with you, got it?” Rhodey smacks him, gently, on the side of the head and untangles himself from Tony. “Now go take a shower, you smell like Ranch hand.” 

Tony takes Rhodey’s offered hand up and with a cocky grin he winks,” it’s from riding all day.”

Rhodey shakes his head and watches as Tony gathers himself up to shower off. He sits down on his bed, lets out a sigh. There is nothing wrong with Tony. No one’s normal and that’s the harsh reality but the harsher reality is that happiness so rarely comes with brilliance. Tony doesn’t seem to be making any moves to break that reality.

 

 

It’s his twenty-second birthday and he drinks alone. Rhodey is off at one of his camps, training to go on his special missions. At ten he’d sent an email begging Tony not to do anything dumb until he’s port side again. Tony never sent a reply. Not that Pepper didn’t try to remind him. She spent her day keeping him out of a liquor bottle long enough to sign papers for… well, he can’t remember what he signed. To be honest, he just trusts her to do what needs to be done.

It only takes half a bottle of tequila before he’s in the back alley with his pants around his ankles. It’s not at all like when he was eighteen and experimenting. No. This is nothing more than a quick fuck in an alley to forget about his dead parents.

By the time Pepper finds him, a ditsy looking brunette is funneling Vodka down his throat. He’s coughing, gagging hardly able to get it down but the sting hurts just enough that he doesn't make her stop. There’s a man on his left side, biting at his earlobe. Tony’s hand unceremoniously palming the man’s soft cock. 

“Hey!” Pepper rushes into the alley and the man pulls away from Tony to glare at her. Without the man’s steady hand on Tony’s hip, his knees go out from underneath him and he lands in a heap on the cold, wet ground. The brunette giggles. “Get off him. Go!”

It doesn’t matter that the man’s angry, horney, and drunk. Pepper looks scary enough that the man grabs the brunette and drags her away. They leave in a fit of stumbling feet and giggles.

Pepper crouches in the filth of the alley, she frowns at her boss. He’s a mess but still dressed in the suit she forced him in for his meeting with Obediah and the board. Most of the buttons on his shirt have been ripped off, it hands crooked and loose on his thin frame. “Let’s get you up.” She shoulders most of his weight, not that it’s a lot.

Most of her struggling comes in getting his pants back on. She settles him against the wall and manages to pull his dress slacks back over his hips. He only makes a sound when she fastens the button back on. She meets his eyes and her heart breaks for him. “Don’t worry about it, Tony. I’ll get you home.”

She pulls his body against hers and helps him wobble to the car that Happy’s got waiting. Tony cries silently when he sees the other man. Pepper gently wipes away each tear, gently shushing him when it calls for it and rubbing his back while he pukes. 

By the time they get back to the Malibu house Tony’s stomach is empty of all the alcohol, he’s consumed. He can’t stand on his feet and the words that he mumbles make no sense. Happy and Pepper sit with him through the night. Each time his thin frame is wracked with dry heaves Pepper is there by his side. When the night sweats come, when he lies on his back and gasp for breath as his fevered eyes beg her to help she runs a rag over his face and soothes him back to sleep. 

Morning comes slowly.

“What did he take?” Happy watches Tony’s sleeping form whimper and roll over, curling in on himself and wrapping his arms around his chest. He looks to Pepper and finds she’s doing the same thing as him. He wonders what exactly he’s missed between her and his boss. Last he checked, she was days away from quitting.

Pepper shakes her head,” I don’t know. He reeked of marijuana when I found him but the look in his eyes, the way he looked at me like I wasn’t even there at all…” She puts a hand over her mouth and shakes her head. She watches him,” I don’t know what it was.” 

Happy shakes his head and grabs his suit jacket. Throwing one arm in he remarks,” I don’t care what the hell it was but he needs to get his shit together. He can’t keep doing this. I get… Look, I don’t mean to be insensitive, I know his parents just died, but he can’t keep doing this. Something bad is going to happen and what if we’re not there? What if next time he doesn’t just puke up al the drugs and alcohol?”

Pepper nods and Happy looks in the room once more. The man shrugs his shoulders,” I care about him. He’s a good man. I don’t want anything bad to happen to him, you know?”

Pepper, for better or for worse, understands.

 

 

He feels a blinding pain in his chest. He can hear people yelling. He moves to get away, his arm coming up lazily to swat the hands and people away. More hands come out of nowhere and hold his arms and legs down. The pain in his chest intensifies and he can feel his something in him being moved around. He screams out but it’s quickly muffled by a rag that stings his nose. He falls unconscious but not comfortably.

 

 

“So,” Peter inches forward, smiling over his pancakes and at Tony. “How old are you?” 

Tony chokes on his coffee. It sends little specks of coffee into his greying facial hair and he has to fish it out with a napkin. He glares at Peter but the boy is too pleased with Tony’s reaction to care. He simply shovels more pancake into his mouth and smiles at him. 

Tony tosses the used napkins on top of Peter’s other pancake plates and clears his throat. He forces himself to relax because this birthday is going to be nothing like the others. He’s sober now. He has an agenda and right now it’s spending time with his kid and then he’s got to get home to call his other get in Tennesse and makes sure he gets up in time for his interview. “You never ask people their age, Pete. Don’t they teach that in Junior High?”

This time it’s Peter’s turn to choke,” Junior High? Tony, I’m a high school Junior and no one calls it Junior High anymore. What are you eighty?” Peter shakes his head,” speaking of, I googled how old you were like six times last night. I already know and plus, you don’t ask women their age, not middle-aged dudes whose weight, height, and age are all on a Wikipedia page.”

Tony almost gets frustrated, almost. Peter manages to distract him with a hand made card. It’s just construction paper folded in half but Tony smiles anyways. 

“Don’t laugh,” Peter begs. Tony can see his red tipped ears even with his head buried in his hands. “May told me just to make you one last night, she didn’t want to take me to the store. I almost forgot to make one as is. I just got super hyperfocused last night-’

“I love it.” Tony smiles at the card and Peter just stared at him. He’s never seen just raw emotion in his mentor’s eyes before. Usually, now would be when Tony slips on his tinted glasses and makes a clean getaway. Instead, Tony clears his throat and thumbs the card open. He reads it and God Peter has never hated himself so much. 

What was he thinking? This was such a stupid idea. He should have just stuck with the Amazon shirt with the Iron Man mask on it. God, why can’t he do anything-

“Pete?” 

Oh God, he must have gotten to that bs where Peter says something along the lines of ‘you're like a father to me’. How dumb. Why did he say that? He shouldn’t have-

“I-I,” Tony glances back down at the card and Peter has never felt a fear like this before. There are tears in Tony’s eyes and he’s never seen Tony crack like this not even when they watched Marley & Me. “I love you too, kid.” Tony clears his throat and wipes his eyes,” I-... Birthdays suck for me, ever since I was a kid. I loathe them and this year… Christ, if I cry over this stupid card I’m taking your damn suit again.”

He doesn't mean it and Peter stands up, dragging Tony out of the booth. He hugs the man. Getting his first hug ever out of the Iron Man in the can. Tony holds him tight for several long seconds before he pulls away and neither say anything about the tear tracks down his eyes. 

Peter knows about the birthday thing. Rhodey told him about it, Pepper warned him about it, and Happy swore he’d make Peter’s life hell if Peter messed this breakfast up in any way. Peter knows what Happy meant there to. He knows that his mentor, his idol, the man he sees as a father figure overdosed on his own birthday. Barely survived being brought back and then a few years later was attacked in Afganistan and had his chest ripped in two to put the arc reactor in. 

May 29th has not been kind to Tony but Peter hopes he can help change that. 

“Hey, Tony?”

The older man stands outside of the car, waiting for Happy to pull off with Peter in the back seat. He leans down and looks in the car, eyebrow raised he waits for Peter to get whatever he needs to say off his chest.

“Will you tell that brown noser, Harley, that I got you a better gift and he can shove whatever shit MIT Dad shirt he got you up his-”

“Peter Benjamin!” Tony cuts him off but they both smile. Tony’s turns to a sad one,” did he really get me…”

Peter wracks his brain on how to answer that. Harley did get Tony a shirt that says MIT Dad but Peter wasn’t supposed to say anything. “I mean, if he did does that mean he got you a better gift?”

Tony smiles and leans his hand in to rustle Peter’s curls,” Happy get this kid out of here.” Tony shakes his head but Peter knows he’s won. 

And he can’t wait to brag about it to Harley.

 

 

“Daddy.”

Something pokes his cheek. He ignores it.

“Daaaadddddyyy.” 

The something pokes his cheek three times before he feels it move off of his chest and on to the bed itself. He’s just awake enough to hear whispering and then the creak of the bed as someone climbs on to it. He’s not sure who it is, the bed moves too much to be one person and it can’t be Morg-

“Tony!”

“Daddy!”

“Tony!”

The bed rocks with motion, his eyes snap open and he’s surrounded by three kids and his wife... All of whom are jumping on his bed. It takes his brain three seconds before he too is up on his feet and taking Harley down with a shout. 

The jumping end quickly. Tony’s arm catching Morgan by the seat of her zip-up pajamas and Peter more or less just falling down. Breathless, Harley smirks,” told you we should have just jumped on the bed.” The oldest boy tries to move out from under where Tony has pined him,” how are you holding on so tight?” He wiggles but can’t move away,” you’re old as sin and have one arm, how are you this strong?”

Morgan gets up and plants her little self right on her father’s chest. She smiles at Harley,” my daddy is not old! You’re just not strong!” She launches her little self off of Tony and at Harley, making him shout out as he can’t protect himself.

“Hey, hey,” Pepper pulls Morgan off and settles her in her own lap. “Everyone up. I’ve got eggs and bacon waiting in the kitchen. You won’t want them when they’re cold so go get them now.” She’s not halfway through her sentence when all of them go running past her, except Tony. “How are you doing?”

She crawls across the bed and lays down beside him, spooning herself against his side. He hums and turns his head to her hair. “Happy Birthday, Tony.” The simple statement means to much. It speaks measures of how far they’ve come. No more alley hook-ups, drug overdoses, or emotional break downs. What once was a snot-faced little boy crying on the porch with a bloody lip is a man who saved the world. Who went from Howard Stark’s son to Earth’s Best Defender. 

He may only have one arm, walk with a limp, works impossible hours, and be a silver fox but she loves him for the man that she knows that he’s always been, the man that Jarvis raised, and the man that Tony has chosen to be.


End file.
